Jose Canseco on His Shocking New Book 'Vindicated'

This is a rush transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," April 1, 2008. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: From record-setting ball player to league-wide whistleblower. Jose Canseco made millions from a 20-year association with Major League Baseball.

The self-admitted steroid user blew the lid off of baseball's performance-enhancing drug era by naming names. His first book exposed sluggers like Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmiero. His second book takes on even bigger stars.

With us now, the author of "Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars and the Battle to Save Baseball," former Major Leaguer, Jose Canseco.

Do you have more enemies now than last time you were here with the first book?

Click here to watch our interview with baseball's "bad boy" Jose Canseco: Part 1

Part 2

JOSE CANSECO, FORMER MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYER: I think the same group of enemies. Well, maybe a couple here and there more. But it's still the same thing. I'm still a pariah to Major League Baseball.

COLMES: You say in this new book — you talk about no fair — Roger Clemens for example, you say no first-hand knowledge of him using steroids. You say that he did joke about taking B-12 shots...

CANSECO: Right.

COLMES: ... which was kind of code, wasn't it?

CANSECO: Back then it was kind of a code. But you really couldn't tell if it was serious or not.

COLMES: But in your heart, your gut, do you believe he was doing it?

CANSECO: You know, I always suspected Roger Clemens. And him and I were good friends; we were golf buddies. I knew his family. He knew mine. His wife knew my wife. We actually, you know, confided in each other in certain, you know, personal problems and so forth.

And ironically enough, I always suspected Roger, but I never had any solid evidence that he used steroids. So it's kind of like a catch-22. You suspect someone, but you never have any type of solid evidence that he used steroids.

COLMES: Your publisher didn't want you mentioning him. In the second book, you talk about what you went through in the first book when people did not want you talking about it?

CANSECO: Well, exactly. The first book, I almost didn't get it published, because the publishers — we met with about five or six publishers. Publishers were worried about slanderous statements that would bring on lawsuits.

So I never really had any true information about Roger Clemens. So they didn't want that being used. It was enough that I was mentioning all these other baseball players. And I was saying that I was injecting them personally.

COLMES: You also hint in this book, in the new book, in "Vindicated," that Roger Clemens, from Texas, friendly with the Bush family, and that his name was kept off certain news reports. You even hint that maybe some pressure was applied?

CANSECO: Well, maybe, because I couldn't understand why the publishers at one point said, "No, we cannot put his name in there."

And then in other articles that were supposed to take place, they were completely killed. So I kind of suspected, you know, Roger Clemens, the best pitcher of our era. Maybe he had friends in high places.

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: Hey, Jose, welcome back to the program here.

I guess one question always comes up. Is — and I think you are doing baseball a favor.

CANSECO: Thank you.

HANNITY: You can't compare Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron's home-run record with somebody if they were using steroids, can you? It's not a fair comparison.

CANSECO: Probably not, but even until today we don't know how much steroids will enhance certain individuals. It may work different for a Barry Bonds and a Mark McGwire than a Jose Canseco. So we just don't know yet.

HANNITY: Yes, but you know, you even were very clear about it. You still have got to be able to hit the baseball. You've still got to be — have talent. You've got to be able to compete. You know, it just may make your performance better.

Here's the question I think some people have. Why name names when it's going to hurt people's lives, when you could bring attention to the story without naming specific names?

CANSECO: No, you really cannot bring the full attention to the story without naming names.

HANNITY: You think you have to?

CANSECO: You definitely have to. It's — you know, it's a serious issue.

The reason why I named the original names in the book "Juiced" was because it wasn't an attack on these players. I was attacking Major League Baseball. What I needed was one of these players to come to the forefront and say, "You know what? What Jose is saying is 100 percent truthful."

I definitely underestimated Major League Baseball and how powerful they were.

HANNITY: You say you were pushed out of baseball, that you were black-balled.

CANSECO: Absolutely. And I think these players who I mentioned in my book were afraid to be black-balled and excommunicated from the game of baseball.

HANNITY: Well, here is the scary part to me, is — and, look, I'm a big baseball fan. I'm really afraid when the government gets involved.

It seems to me, you know, they sit there all sanctimonious and self-righteous, and they're questioning these people and setting a perjury trap for each and every one of them. And there's talk about the potential, you know, charges being brought against Roger Clemens, and the like.

We know what Barry Bonds is going through right now.

CANSECO: Right.

HANNITY: That bothers me, because I — and tell me if I'm wrong. Baseball knew it. The owners knew it, in most cases. The commissioner may have known it. Everybody knew, because they wanted you guys to have home runs, because that brought people into the stadiums.

CANSECO: Absolutely. What really brought back the game of baseball was, of course, we saw a huge home run barrage, a home run challenge between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire in that — I think it was 1996.

HANNITY: It was great for baseball. Exciting.

CANSECO: It was great for baseball. Exciting for baseball. People wanted to see that. And both of them actually broke home run record.

HANNITY: All right. We've got to take a break. We'll come back. Now this — you bring up A-Rod's name.

CANSECO: Yes.

HANNITY: And it's gotten a lot of press.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: Brand new book, "Vindicated." Jose Canseco is with us.

I'm a big A-Rod fan. I'm a Yankee fan. And you brought up his name in this book. And what you said, that he approached you about acquiring steroids and human growth hormones. You say yes. And you introduced him to somebody. And you're also mad at him, because you think he was trying to pick up your wife.

CANSECO: Well, let's start with the introduction. I actually met an individual in Canada when I was playing with the Toronto Blue Jays. I think the year was '96 or '97.

HANNITY: Yes.

CANSECO: Long time ago. And asked me — this individual had family in Florida and was interested in moving back to Florida to see his family. And asked me — I was training with him. Asked me if I had any players — if I knew of any players that were interested in training and maybe acquiring steroids.

You know, I'd spoken to Alex briefly about it in the past. I say, yes, maybe Alex Rodriguez would do. So when the season ended, I actually introduced this so-called — his name was Max.

HANNITY: But you don't know that he — you don't know...?

CANSECO: No. No, I have no idea. But ironically enough...

HANNITY: Yes.

CANSECO: ... if you look at Alex's charts, his weight charts, when they do physicals, after I introduced him, he gained about 20 to 30 pounds.

HANNITY: Forget about the issue, and you made your case in the book about the wife. Let people do that.

I love A-Rod, watching him play. He is a talented player.

Let me ask you this. If I took steroids, because there's a lot of kids now that are reading about this. They're watching these hearings. What would happen — you know, what happens to somebody? Is there any downside to that? You talk about Mike Wallace questioning you for hours after the "60 Minutes" interview. Or human growth hormones. You really believe these are good things?

CANSECO: They were created and invented for medicinal purposes to help individuals out, especially after certain, you know, long surgeries that take a lot of hours, where the blood drainage is incredible.

I truly believe, if used properly, human growth hormones and certain steroids are great anti-aging products, but you have to have proper supervision.

COLMES: But you're not saying to kids, hey...

CANSECO: No, no, no. This is more for adults. As a matter of fact, when you read some books about it, they say you should probably start using these products after 40 years old.

HANNITY: I'm 46. You think it would help? You really think it would help?

CANSECO: Perfect.

COLMES: There you go.

Let me ask you — I don't think it will help his political views. Let me ask you about this. On the A-Rod thing, did you ever talk to him about what happened with your wife?

CANSECO: I did.

COLMES: Did you have a conversation with him?

CANSECO: I did. I confronted him at one point. I asked him about it. He's told me that, quote, "I'm a man's man. I would never do that," this and that.

But ironically enough, I found out that he was at a certain place at one time where, at the time, my ex-wife Jessica was, and they were together then. So in my opinion, did A-Rod have an affair with Jessica? There's no doubt.

COLMES: Did you ask Jessica?

CANSECO: I asked her. She didn't deny it, so that was a very interesting beginning.

COLMES: Well, one question about the Mitchell report. Where were they right? Where were they wrong?

CANSECO: Well, they weren't completely right, but they weren't completely wrong. They missed a couple of players that were in my book, "Juiced," that I injected personally that were not in that book.

Nonetheless, ironically enough, the strangest issue was that — you know, the Mitchell report comes out with all these baseball players, all these names. Why didn't they not call me and ask me my opinion? I wrote the book "Juiced." Why didn't they call?

COLMES: Why do you think? We have about 10 seconds here. Why do you think?

CANSECO: They don't want to know the truth. Major League Baseball paid Mitchell to conduct this. They don't want me involved.

COLMES: Jose, best of luck with the book, "Vindicated." Thank you for being with us.

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